Friday, May 9, 2014

Rutgers University now holds the most dubious honor of rejecting America's first female African-American Secretary of State and first female African-American National Security Advisor as commencement speaker. This comes as a result of one of the most conspicuous moves of any single-agenda, left-leaning group of students and faculty ever. Condoleezza Rice withdrew from her commitment to speak at the Rutgers University commencement amid faculty-led controversy and objection. Congratulations, Rutgers. Your myopic, narrow, hissy-fit will be a stain on your history forever more.

Let me take a minute to thank the President of Rutgers who worked hard to ignore the small group of harpies and hotdogs who had their way in the end. Also, I apologize to all of my friends who have students at Rutgers. I am certain that they are among the majority of students and faculty at Rutgers who knew they were lucky to get Condoleezza Rice as commencement speaker.

Professor Rudolph Bell and other small-minded professors (who one can only hope will be in an unemployment line somewhere soon) actually helped people organize the tragically confused and surprisingly small group of student protesters. It is so nice to have liberal professors remind us that the marketplace of ideas is not the Rutgers way.

Of course, forever the class act, Condi Rice decided to give them the heave-ho. Way to go, Condi.

To the cry-babies and buffoons who caused Ms. Condoleezza Rice to withdraw:

1. No one takes you seriously and no one is stupid enough to believe that this was anything more than political zealotry gone wild with even more disturbing religious undercurrents.

2. If you are going to hold the former Secretary of State Rice accountable for her actions a decade ago, would you hold Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the same standard I wonder?

3. Here is what you have proven: Overly-zealous politically motivated enclaves in American universities have more throw-weight than any other constituency. Forget about acknowledging outstanding women in government. Forget about acknowledging superior, scorching-smart black American women. The most important measure of worth as a citizen in your university-world is whether or not that citizen has offended your very narrow, un-American, left wing faculty and its groupies.

I am so glad that Condoleezza Rice took the high-road but I am not surprised. She has distinguished herself again and again and again as an individual who will not be pulled down by haters and who will not be put down by her lessers.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

I love this Common Core moment! George Will echoes many of the points I made a few months ago about the creepy use of the word "align". He sees the clear and present danger that Common Core represents and responds with a powerful smack-down. Thank you, George.

Juan Williams: “And, I don’t think it’s out of place for our governors, for our school leaders, local school leaders, to say, ‘Here are the common standards that we want them to achieve' The military’s on board, the Chamber of Commerce is on board, even Condoleeza Rice and the Council of Foreign Affairs are on board.”

George Will’s response is powerful, even connecting the lies told about Common Core to those lies told about Obamacare by beginning with a play on words of Obama’s ‘Lie of the Year.’

George Will:They’re all wrong, and here’s why.

“The advocates of the Common Core say, ‘If you like local control over your schools, you can keep it. Period. If you like your local curriculum, you can keep it. Period.’ And people don’t believe them, for very good reasons.”

“This is a thin end of an enormous wedge of federal power that will be wielded for the constant progressive purpose of concentrating power in Washington, so that it can impose continental solutions to problems nationwide.”

“You (common core supporters) say it’s voluntary. It has been driven by the (federal government’s) use of bribes and coercion in the form of waivers from No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top money – to buy the compliance of these 45 states, two of which – Indiana, and I believe, Oklahoma – have already backed out, and they will not be the last.”

“Watch the verb ‘align’ in this argument. They’re going to align the SAT and the ACT tests with the curriculum. They’re going to align the textbooks with the tests. And sooner or later, you inevitably have a national curriculum that disregards the creativity of federalism.”

“What are the chances (speaking to Juan Williams) that we’re going to have five or six creative governors experimenting with different curricula, or one creative, constant, permanent Washington bureaucracy overlooking our education?”

“We’ve had 50 years now of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – 50 years of federal involvement that has coincided with stagnation in test scores across the country.”